Illustration MA

About the course

The Illustration MA is part of the School of Art and Humanities MA Art & Design Suite, an innovative approach to postgraduate taught education that brings together disciplines from across art and design to produce a collaborative programme of courses that foreground the shared practices, processes and values of art and design in the 21st century.

Illustration creates a deep emotional connection in the telling of stories and communication of ideas to a global audience. Illustration is made up of many different creative processes and inhabits a multitude of contexts.

The Masters course provides an opportunity for you to hone your professional approaches to the discipline for different commercial and artistic platforms. Illustration offers traditional as well as increasingly innovative spaces for image makers as the scale of what we illustrate and where evolves. Our course offers continuing students or graduates from creative art and design subjects with an opportunity to enhance their knowledge, creative skills and employment prospects.

Our course aims to enable you to:

• Critically appraise the importance of social, ethical, technological and cultural dimensions of illustration as applied to your personal practice and that of others.
• Evidence advanced knowledge and understanding of illustration and its current and emerging global applications such as, but not limited to, authorial practice, visual communication, children’s’ books and graphic novels.
• Systematically plan, negotiate and implement topical research to substantiate a coherent body of advanced illustration practice.
• Contribute to the principles and processes of illustration in supporting innovation within commercial or creative industries.
• Evidence awareness and relevance of your work in relation to professional standards in illustration practice such as, for example, maintaining an online portfolio and demonstrating an ability to work across a range of platforms such as print, web, animation and multimedia.

Our course aims to encourage you to push the boundaries of your illustration practice with the development of innovative and imaginative concepts and ideas relevant to a range of situations, artefacts and products. We will introduce you to a variety of platforms and contexts within which illustration sits, enabling you to experiment, expand, progress and communicate your ideas through different forms and processes, both digital and analogue.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for this course are normally:

• An Honours degree (2:2 or above) in a relevant subject or an equivalent professional qualification.
• Alternative qualifications and/or significant experience may be accepted, subject to approval.
• International students with qualifications in 'creative' or 'practice' subjects should submit a digital portfolio (pdf) of work with their application.
• All suitably qualified applicants are normally invited in for an informal chat with a portfolio or considered for admittance under alternative arrangements.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

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